June 17, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



4G9 



The entries are to be made as usual at the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, South Kensington. 



KOYAL HOBTICULTDRAL SOCIETY. 



June IGtu. 



Fruit Committee.— Henry Webb, Eaq., in the chair. Mr. 

 William Stanuard, gardener to H. C. Roberta, Esq., Cecil Lodge, 

 Abbott's Langley, sent a dish of Strawberries which was ex- 

 hibited under the name of Dr. Hogg, but which proved on 

 examination to be mixed varieties. Thomas Laxton, Esq , 

 Stamford, sent two dishes of Pioneer Strawberry, large, and 

 frait varying from conical to cockscomb shape, bright red colour, 

 with small seeds slightly depressed. The flavour was brisk and 

 good, but the Committee did not consider it worthy of a certifi- 

 cate. Mr. Laxton also exhibited a very fine dieh of Dr. Hogg 

 Peas quite filled, and which were sown ou the 18th of March. 



Floral Committee. — Dr. Denny in the chair. Messrs. J. 

 Veitch & Sons of Chelsea had first-class certificates for Adiantum 

 Hendersonii, a very distinct species ; the fronds have erect 

 footstalks, and arch over gracefully. Begonia Emperor, a very 

 fine hybrid of the B. Boliviensis and Pearcei type. The flowers 

 are a bright orange-scarlet, larger and of a better shape than any 

 of its predecessors. The same firm showed Dracraua Taylori, 

 with magnificent bronzy metallic foliage ; it is a garden hybrid 

 between D. magnifica and D. Mooreaua; D. eleganti^sima has 

 very neat erect-growing bronzy leaves, edged witli crimson. 

 They also exhibited for the approval of the Committee a very 

 fine new Pern from Columbia, Asplenium ferulaceum. The 

 plant was in too young a state to adjudicate upon, but when the 

 sori is developed it will no doubt have the highest award. The 

 pinnffl are finely divided, and the fronds very beautiful. 



Messrs. Cripps of Tunbridge Wells sent Clematis Grand 

 Duchess, a splendid variety, with flowers about 9 inches across, 

 blush white and of good quality ; it received a first-class certificate. 

 C. Leviathan, a double flower, was exhibited with it. They also 

 Bent a box of flowers of C. excelsior, a fine double variety. A 

 collection of double-flowered Zonal Pelargoniums was sent by 

 Mr. Thomas Laxton of Stamford. Six varieties had white 

 flowers ; all of them are advances on Aline Sisley. Wilfrid is 

 certainly the best, and well deserved the first-class award voted 

 to it ; Guiding Star is a very distinct flower of the scarlet section. 

 From Mr. Perkins of Leamington was sent Pteris serrulatacristata 

 Hnd Scolopendrium valgare aurea variegata, the latter blotched 

 with yellow; alsoLiliumThunbergianum flore-pleno. Scutellaria 

 mocciniana, from the Society's Gardens, is a useful decorative 

 flower, bright scarlet, with an orange lip. Messrs. Carter & Co. 

 received a vote of thanks for Coleus Mandarin, a variety like 

 C. Bausei. Mr. Laxton also sent a fine creamy-yellow Tea Rose, 

 Lady Isabel Cecil ; it has good strong foliage, and looks promis- 

 ing. H P. Vivid is a dark flower resembling Charles Lefebvre. 



A vote of thanks was given to Mr. R. Dean, Baling, for cut 

 flowers of a fine strain of Canterbury Bells. A plant of Primula 

 Bcotica was referred to the Scientific Committee. A new Lobelia 

 having bright blue flowers with white centre ; and a new black 

 Pansy Othello was of good shape and free-flowering, both from 

 Mr. Dean. Cut flowers of a perpetual-flowering Picotee Minnie 

 sent from Mr. John Wiltshire, Beaoonsfield, Bucks, were too 

 late for the Committee. Mr. C. Ross, gardener to C. Eyre, Esq., 

 Welford, Newbury, sent a out truss of Crinum amabilis. 



WARNING! NEW POTATO DISEASE. 

 We regret to announce the appearance of a new Potato dis- 

 ease more disastrous in its effects by far than that from which 

 the plant has suffered during the past thirty years. It is a 

 fangas which attacks the plant when not more than 6 inches 

 high : the seed tuber prematurely decays and becomes a mass 

 of rottenness, the young tubers are consequently arrested in 

 their growth, and the haulm withers and decays. The dis- 

 covery has only just been made, and the disease is being in- 

 vestigated by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who discovered it in 

 the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Ohiswick. 

 It is remarkable that the disease is confined to the American 

 varieties. 



THE FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION AT THE 



LOWER GROUNDS, ASTON, BIRMINGHAM. 



Prizes of considerable value are offered for everything likely 

 to be worth exhibiting ou the Ist of JQly. For sixteen stove 

 and greenhouse plants in bloom the prizes are £2.5, £18, and 

 £1'2, with a challenge cup value twenty-five guineas to the 

 winner of the first prize. For ten stove and greenhouse plants 

 in bloom are one class for the trade and one for amateurs, the 

 prizes in each b^ing £12, £9, and £6. Good prizes are offered 

 foe specimen stove plants and greenhouse plants almost of 



every class, and collections of every class of Pelargoniums. 

 The prizes for cut Rosea amount to about £2.';0 in money, and 

 two silver challenge cups, each worth twenty-five gaineas. For 

 other cut flowers, vegetables, and fruits, the prizes are on an 

 equally liberal scale. Such prizes will no doubt draw together 

 a magnificent display. 



The object to which the profits of the Exhibition are to be 

 devoted is so admirable and so warmly supported in Birming- 

 ham and the midland counties generally that we hope the 

 horticulturists of Great Britain will combine to ensure an 

 Exhibition responding to the enthusiasm which will secure 

 the presence of enormous masses of spectators at the Lower 

 Grounds on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th of the coming month. 

 Mr. Qailter has generously provided all necessary funds for 

 the Show, and on him all the risks depend. The beautiful 

 grounds, now in a state of great beauty, will be devoted to the 

 interests of the Midland Institute. 



This Institute is an educational establishment where artisans 

 and othera, male and female, are enabled to continue their 

 education after leaving school and entering on the work of 

 life. The first stone of the building was laid by H.R.H. the 

 late Prince Consort on the 22Qd November, 1855, on a site of 

 much value given by the Corporation of Birmingham. Oa 

 the building, the furniture and apparatus used in the science 

 classes, &a., a sum of about £18,000 was expended. Com- 

 mencing with 165 students in the first year of the Institute's 

 existence, the number in 1871 was 2179. Such a large increase 

 was greater than the most sanguine expectations of the founders 

 led them to expect. Large as the building is, it is totally 

 inadequate to the present requirements, and as every year the 

 applicants for admission increase in numbers, it has long been 

 felt that additional buildings must be erected in order to 

 accommodate the growing body of students. With this end in 

 view a contiguous site has been bought for the sum of £14,000, 

 and the erection of the new buildings is to be set about at once. 

 Their estimated cost is £10,000. Of this total sum of £30,000, 

 £22,000 has already been raised. A sum of £8000 is still 

 wanted, and the profits of the forthcoming Exhibition will be 

 handed over to the Committee as part of it. 



Nor must it be forgotten, as a very strong claim upon the 

 gardening community, how liberally the people of Birmingham 

 gave their money to horticulture when in 1872 the Royal 

 Horticultural Society held its provincial Show at the Lower 

 Grounds — a Show which was more profitable to the Society 

 than any other held by it in the provinces. 



The Show will open on Thursday July 1, and will remain 

 open till the evening of the Monday following. The period 

 for making entries has been extended until Thursday the 24th 

 inst. We sincerely hope we may have the pleasure of record- 

 ing that the entries are worthy of the occasion. 



ROYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY. 



June IGth. 



Beneath lowering clouds, threatening rain, was the second 

 summer Exhibition at Regent's Park held; the day, however, 

 was, notwithstanding a shower or two, agreeable to visitors, and 

 at the least equally so must have been the display arranged for 

 their approval and gratification. 



The bold banks of stove and greenhouse plants were the 

 most striking feature of the Show, in some of the classes for 

 which there was good competition. For twelve plants (open), 

 Mr. Ward, gardener to F. G. Wilkins, Esq., Leyton, set up a 

 group in the style of excellence in which Mr. Wilkins' plants 

 are characterised. The most noticeable were a splendid globular 

 plant of Erica Cavendishii quite 6 feet in diameter, and not a 

 failing place in it; E. tricolor impressa, 4 feet across, a model 

 of good culture ; a striking Kalosanthes with more than a 

 hundred heads of bloom; exceUent Aphelexes ; a Clerodendron, 

 Bougainvillea, Hedaroma, &o. Mr. Carr, gardener to P. Hinds, 

 Eeq., Weybridge, exhibited nicely grown smaller specimens. 

 Mr. Wheeler, gardener to Sir F. Goldsmid, staged a group made 

 gay by four immense and well-bloomed Azaleas G feet high. 



In the class for six stove and greenhouse plants (amateurs), 

 Mr. Ward was to the front again with a really good group— Ixora 

 Williamsii, Ericas, an Aphelexis and Stephanotis showing pro- 

 minently. Mr. Donald, gardener to J. G. Barclay, Esq , Leyton, 

 staged also a grand lot, and is evidently a competitor not to be 

 played with ; his Rbynoospermum, Azalea Chelsoni, and Phceno- 

 coma were admirably grown. Mr. Toms had a nice but a more 

 irregularly grown group. 



In the correspoudiug nurserymen's class Mr. Williams set up 

 a huge Genetyllis 6 feet in diameter ; Anthurium Scherzerianum 

 with thirty spathes ; AUamanda grandiflora, bright clear yellow 

 and very effective ; a Dipladenia, Aphelexis, and Dracophyllum. 



